ON the back of their first win for the season, Souths will go into today’s women’s Premier League Hockey match against Confederates as favourites in round four of the competition.
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The two blues opened their season with back-to-back defeats against St Pat’s and Lithgow Panthers before springing a minor surprise against Orange Ex-Services last Saturday in Orange.
With that victory giving them some valuable competition points and a major confidence boost, their coach Melissa Bestwick is happy to wear a tag of expectation going into today’s match against ’Feds.
“The girls are pretty happy last week and were joking a bit and saying how nice it would be to get a really convincing win this weekend, but we will settle for any victory,” she said.
“All we’re chasing is just the points, it doesn’t matter by how many. But it is an opportunity to go into a game confident of winning and hopefully a chance to do it well.
“It was a big relief to get that first one out of the way last week. There is a big difference between me telling the girls they can do it and them going out and winning, and now knowing they can do it.
“They walked off the field after that game with a lot more self-belief that they can get the job done, and the fact that it came against a strong team in Ex-Services and on their home ground added to it as well.”
Since returning to the competition two seasons ago, Confederates finished last in 2013 with no wins and just a solitary draw to their name, and were last once more in 2014 with one victory.
This year they are winless but have been stronger than in their past campaigns, going down 2-0 to early pacesetters Dubbo, 1-0 to Parkes and 6-2 to Lithgow Panthers.
Bestwick has a healthy respect for the opposition before their meeting.
“We played against them in a shortened trial game and won that 2-0, so we’d be looking to inflict some similar sort of damage to that,” she said.
“But from what I’ve seen they’ve added a couple of younger players this season that have added a lot of extra speed around the field.
“As well as that, they do have a few older players who give them some valuable experience and really steer them around smartly.
“We’re almost at full-strength. We’re without Carly Guihot this week with a calf injury and she will get a good rest with the Easter break next weekend before coming back. But Nikki Braun comes back in, which is a major boost for us.”
Souths take on Confederates from 1.50pm at Bob Roach Field.
